“It is extremely disappointing for these members and I genuinely feel for them,” Jackson said. “We approached the AFL 12 months ago and said these ticket problems needed to be addressed urgently. We suggested ways in which distribution could be altered to give the members of participating clubs more chance of getting a ticket. All that was put in front of them 12 months ago – in that time nothing has been done to improve the situation.”
Just over 10,540 Grand Final tickets will be allocated to Essendon members for this weekend’s Grand Final. Essendon has 36,000 members and around 31,000 of those are eligible to purchase a Grand Final ticket. Of this number, 5,000 are AFL members meaning 26,000 Essendon supporters are left with only 10,540 tickets available.
“It is disappointing and the thing that annoys me even more is the fact that of the allocated Grand Final tickets only 8742 are full view seats. The remainder comprise of 950 standing room tickets, 716 restricted view seats and 134 wheelchair seats. It is simply not good enough. Club members deserve better and that is why we approached the AFL 12 months ago,” Jackson said.
“You could for example have a 70-year-old member who gets to the ticket window and is left to purchase a standing room ticket. That is unacceptable to me. We have a situation this weekend where there will be 50,000 members of the competing clubs and 19,500 tickets available of which about 3500 are below standard.”
